Hey, History Friends!!! Last time, we talked about New York's first Revolutionary bloodshed, but this time, we head NORTH. This is why I need maps. I legit had to open a map to double check that I had said that right. If you remember right, when the Townshend Acts were passed, Bostonians signed a Nonimportation Agreement.
I told you about John Hancock and one of his run-ins with the new customs officers. There's actually a lot more fun stories about him and his history, but I haven't studied him extensively- yet. He's on that to-learn about list I mentioned. I will tell you, though, that he was the richest man in Boston at one point. It took him a minute to really warm to the Patriot Dream, but after the Stamp Act, he became more vocal about the British injustices. He became selectman and then eventually a delegate in the Massachusetts House of Representatives.
The Nonimportation Agreement kind of put Mr. Hancock in a spotlight, however. He was a bit of a target for customs officials. Whether it was political or economical..... maybe a real historian knows. But he definitely stood out. He even is credited for one of the first acts of resistance in Boston because he didn't allow customs officers with a warrant to go below deck of the Lydia.
I told you about the story on the Liberty, where he happened to come into port with proof that he he had paid customs on everything on board-- which was only a tiny bit of what the Liberty could hold. Remember that? It happened way back in 1768. So two years before events of today, but it's important because it wasn't the end of the drama with Hancock and the British, helping to set the scene of Boston's unrest and unease with customs officers.
Also in '68, Hancock had a ship named Liberty. It was a pretty similar story to the Lydia in that by the time customs agents brought it to dock, it was pretty darn light. He was accuse of being a smuggler and the two guys on deck were like, "What? We didn't see anybody unloading stuff last night." until later when one of the guys on deck change his story and said that he was forced to keep quiet. At this point, the Liberty was towed away..... ironic that the British was holding Liberty hostage..... Anyway. After arrests and trials and everything (John Adams was Hancock's lawyer), everything was dropped, though in reality, bringing the Liberty out to the British ship was pretty illegal.
All this to say.... things in Boston were VERY testy. People LOVED John Hancock, so they all know this was happening. They felt like everything was unfair. The Townshend Acts were unfair, being ignored was unfair, being told they had to pay for a war that was fought only partly here was unfair, being taxed without a say was unfair..... Also, Boston gets freaking cold in the winter. I don't say that by experience, but I'm supposed to go to Connecticut this Christmas and that's the FIRST thing people tell me is to prepare for colder cold than I've ever experienced. So... in February...... the people have been dealing with both unfairness, COLD, and the ever present British presence (1,000 troops had been sent from England to babysit the colonials). The water's going to boil eventually, right?
Remember how we discussed the Nonimportation Agreement? Well, pretty much everyone was expected to be on board, but there were some who chose not to. These were usually labeled Tories. One day, in February, a bunch of people were picketing outside a particular shop. The customs officer named Ebenezer Richardson was asked to come break it off. Side note- Ebenezer seems to be a pretty popular name of the time and I'm a little bit sad it isn't any more. The name means "stone of help" so why isn't it used anymore? I want to hear if you named your kid Ebenezer or if you have any Ebenezer's in your family history. Let me know on my FB page or on my blog. I don't know if you can leave comments on Spotify or Anchor.... Anyway. So Ebenezer Richardson, we're just going to call him Richardson from here on out so we don't confuse him with the Ebenezers Fox, Bowman, Stevens or other Revo- War guys.
Anywho- So Richardson comes in and tells everyone to go home and let the guy go about his business and then goes home. But he's not done. He goes to his window and starts yelling and hollering. Well, the boys decided to come closer to his house. Then he gets super "FIRED UP" (the newspaper article says "he, thinking he had now a good Coloring [opportunity] to perpetrate the Villainy, threatened to fire upon them and swore by GOD that he would make the Place too hot for some of them before Night, and that he would make a Lane through them if they did not go away."- and in case you are wondering, that was from the Boston Gazette a few days after the incident. So then the boys start throwing stuff at Richardson's house; mostly stones. Richardson grabbed his gun and loaded it, shooting into the crowd. Well, a couple of kids were hit. One was named Samuel Gore- he was 19 and was hit in the leg. Dr. Warren was able to get the slugs out of his leg without any problem and Sammy Gore grew up to be a painter. His family is pretty interesting and had some cool stories a bout their part in the rebellion. His mom and sisters hosted a Spinning Bee a few days after this incident. This showed that they were supportive of American Manufacturing and didn't need British goods anyway!
The other person shot was Christopher Seider. His story was very different. He was very poor. His parents were German immigrants. Christopher was a servant and he was only 11 years old. He died from his wounds. I can't even imagine the grief his parents must have felt. But his death became a huge point in the way people felt about revolution. John Adams happened to be in Boston at the time of the funeral. I'm just going to read you his journal entry.
When I came into Town [Boston], I saw a vast Collection of People, near Liberty Tree- enquired and found the funeral of the Child, lately kill’d by Richardson was to be attended. Went into Mr. Rowes, and warmed me, and then went out with him to the Funeral, a vast Number of Boys walked before the Coffin, a vast Number of Women and Men after it, and a Number of Carriages. My Eyes never beheld such a funeral. The Procession extended further than can be well imagined. This Shows there are many more Lives to spend if wanted in the Service of their Country. It Shows too that the Faction [illegible] is not yet expiring - that the Ardor of the People is not to be quelled by the Slaughter of one Child and the Wounding of another.
Phyllis Wheatley- who was a renowned poet and a slave in Boston even wrote a poem entitled On the Death of Mr. Snider Murder’d by Richardson. (Snider was another way of saying Seider). I'm not going to read it because I would butcher it terribly and it would seem disrespectful to Ms. Wheatley for it to be mangled, but I'll leave a link on the blog page for it so you can read it. HERE IS THE LINK
So after this whole debacle, the people were more than on edge. A couple of weeks later on March...... Do you know? I'll give you 5 second to see if you can remember the exact date. Ready? 1.....2......3......4......5. It was March 5th, 1770. Did you guess it? Well, if you were wrong, you hopefully won't forget now. You're welcome.
Anyway.... It's interesting to read different newspaper articles about this, because you can see that the press has ALWAYS been biased one side or the other. One makes it sound like the British soldiers were just the victims and did nothing wrong and they were set up for failure. The other one makes it sound like the soldiers were out for the blood of little Patriot boys. My dad always said there were three sides to every story. What one says, what the other says, and what really happened.
In this case, we're going to try to go with facts and let you imagine the way everyone felt. Because the feelings were totally valid. Could you IMAGINE being a British soldier where everyone in town hates you because of your job? Yeah, you're getting paid decently and you're seeing land you would have never seen before, but at some point today, they're going to be throwing snowballs, rocks, and oyster shells at you! On the other hand, imagine being one of the colonials- everything you do is being watched by these regal looking soldiers sent by someone who won't listen. They stand there dressed in clean, fancy uniforms and tell you to obey the law when the law is simply unfair. It would be rough, man, to be in either place.
So people are all still mad about Christopher Seider's death. They are still protesting people who didn't take part in the Nonimportation Agreement. Little fights started breaking out all over the place during the first week of March. At one point (on the 5th), people were throwing snowballs at the barracks and none of the officers really wanted to come out (remember- FREEZING COLD + people hate you). One officer was managing the Customs House. I think that would legit be the worst job to have. For a while, people were just hazing this poor guy so badly that Captain Preston had to grab a bunch of his guys. They had to follow what was called the Riot Act. This meant that, assuming you could READ the riot act aloud, you could tell the people that they need to buggar off and they have one hour to do it and if you don't skedadle by then, the officers have permission to shoot. That's pretty hard to do when people are yelling and screaming at you and daring you to shoot. In court, later, it was learned that Captain Preston was actually standing in front of his men for a while and had told them not to shoot under any circumstances. So many voices coming all at you from once, though. One soldier let off a shot. Now..... we don't know for sure if this was intentional, if he thought he heard the order to shoot, if he was just jostled and accidentally shot.... But because of his, more thought they were supposed to fire.
Unfortunately, when there is a whole throng, mob, or group of people, those shots are going to hit. Five people ended up dying because of the shots fired. Three died immediately and two in the next few days. I'm going to tell you a little bit a bout each one. Hope you're cool with that.
The first one, and the most recognized name, is Crispus Attucks. He was a tall, half African American and half Wampanoag man. He had been born into slavery, but ran away and probably used an alias. He worked on whaling ships and also was a rope maker. It seems that he was there in this mob because he was angry that the soldiers were allowed to take work (as we discussed in the Golden Hill episode) when they weren't on duty. Rumor has it that he was known for his temper. He was incredibly honored, though, after his death. Tens of thousands of people paid their respects to him.
Next up is Samuel Gray. He was also a ropemaker and also mad about the officers looking for part time employment. This was not his first kerfuffle. He was 51, married, and had three kids. I read a couple of different accounts and they don't seem to line up at all. This is when being an actual historian would be nice because I could find more, accurate, trusted resources. I guess Samuel Adams had said something about coming from "a good family" and so a lot of people have him listed in the prominent Gray family, but another source says there is no distinction. It's so tricky when there are a billion Samuels, Johns, and Georges......
James Caldwell was just a kid. He was 17 years old. James was already an experienced mariner, though, having already traveled to the West Indies and back. He was shot twice in the back. Again, we don't know a ton about him, but we're pretty sure he was from New York and had puritan ancestors.
Those three died the day of the horrible event and there were actually 8 others injured. Luckily, of the 8, only 2 died directly from the wounds.
Samuel Maverick was another 17 year old kid. He was a carpenter's apprentice.... or a dentist's apprentice..... Either way, he was apprenticing to a Mr. Greenwood, who was either a carpenter or a dentist. Mr. Greenwood's son, John, was roommates with Samuel and they seemed to be besties. That night, they had gone to some friends and when the alarm bells started sounding, they headed out to see what was going on- usually the bells meant fire. Anyway- Samuel got up front and said some not nice things (we think) and ended up shot. Sadly, his best friend was pretty distraught. Samuel's mom was already a widow and he died the next morning in her house.
Last, but not least, we have Patrick Carr. Very unlike the others, he was Irish, Irish-Catholic, a leatherworker- and forgave his shooter. It took him several days to pass away from his wounds and he was buried on March 17th. HOLD UP!! An Irishman named Patrick who was buried on St. Patrick's Day......MIND BLOWN. Ok, ok, for real, gotta get back to the story. He also heard the bells, but figured it was mob violence or something of the like, so he was going to take a cutlass with him, but his friends helped him decide not to. He had seen British/Irish fighting in his life and so he kind of knew how this story might go. During his mandatory, shot induced down time, he actually forgave his shooters. He believed they were shooting in self defense, though they hadn't technically been hurt badly yet. Patrick knew they would be if something didn't happen. John Adams was able to use Patrick's last testimony (that he gave to his doctor) in his defense trial of the soldiers.
Next time, we'll talk about the response of the Boston Massacre, since this one got a little long. I'll also tell you about some pretty cool random stuff that happened in 1770
I want to know, though, if you have any Ebenezer's in your family or if any of your family records talk about this date in Boston. Actually, I'd love to hear ANY journal entries or family records from ANYWHERE on March 5, 1770, no matter where in the world. I dig stuff like that!!
Note for me: Too many labels: Golden Hill,Townshend Acts,John Hancock, Ebenezer Richardson, Samuel Gore, Christopher Seider,John Adams,Phyllis Wheatley,Boston Massacre, Captain Prescott, Riot Act, Crisups Attucks, Samuel Gray, James Caldwell, Ssamuel Maverick,Patrick Carr
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